From Beers, History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, Camerson and Potter,
Pennsylvania
CRATYON Lewis, the oldest son of William and Ruth A. Lewis, was born at
Upper Lisle, Broome Co., N. Y., February 11, 1813. He was married March
3, 1835, to Caroline Hinman, and very soon after moved to Potter county,
Penn. He settled on a piece of wild land now within the limits of the borough
of Lewisville. and in a few years made it one of the finest farms in the
vicinity. He had but a limited education, but he was an industrious reader,
had a very retentive memory, and he soon became one of the most
intelligent men of the locality. He was very benevolent, with tender
sympathies and a keen sense of justice, and he early became an
Abolitionist, but when the Republican party was formed, he joined it and
remained through life a member. He early espoused the cause of
temperance, and as early as 1843 he circulated a pledge and procured
numerous signatures, starting a movement which resulted in the
organization of Ulysses Division of the Sons of Temperance, in 1849, and of
Lewisville Lodge of Good Templars, a few years later, of both of which
organizations he was an active and honored member. To his labors, more
than to the labors of any other man, is due the strong temperance sentiment
which prevails in the northeastern part of Potter, and which has made
Lewisville borough the stronghold of prohibition, this election district having
given at the election June 18,1889, 125 votes for the amendment and only
seven votes against it. In August, 1857, Mr. Lewis was thrown from a buggy
and received an injury in his heed, from which he never fully recovered, and
January 13,1870, he was killed by falling in his barn. He reared five children,
all of whom are living: Emily, now Mrs. T. E. Gridley, of Bingham, Penn.;
John, living on the old homestead with his mother; Martin, a farmer of
Ulysses, Penn.; Fayette, a surveyor and lumberman at Geneses Forks,
Penn. , and Carlos A. , a merchant of Lewisville